The Ministry of Education and Science of Somaliland has announced the result of the high school final exams and according to a brief statement on the Ministry’s Facebook page from 184 around the country. Out of 10,537 students, none have failed, where only 84 students were absent.
Students from Togdheer and Awdal regions of Somaliland had the best scores in the country, despite their combined total students being less than Maroodijeeh.
The results published by the Ministry of Education show a disproportionate number of students performing poorly especially from Maroodijeeh region the largest school district in Somaliland almost half of its 4213 students had grades of C-, D, and D+.
Due to the COVID-19, schools in Somaliland were closed since March 19th, 2020 as part of the efforts to prevent the spread of the virus and education programs were telecast on Radio and Television.
The Ministry of Education and Science did not administer an exam to 8th-grade students and instead has evaluated that their past score average. It is unclear if all students will be allowed to advance to secondary school.
In addition, the exam for the high school seniors was conducted in one day, instead of the traditional weeklong schedule. Students had to sit for 10 exams back to back in one day. According to the Ministry, this was part of its efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
No actual data was shared by the Ministry to clean how specific schools have performed, particularly public vs private schools. It is unclear how these exam results will affect student’s university and college entrance in Somaliland or overseas.
The Minister of Education and Science Hon. Ahmed Mohamed Diriye Egeh did not respond to request to provide more information about the exam results, to what extend did COVID-19 school closure affect the results and if he considered the telecast of education programs on Radio and Television was an effective substitute for actual classrooms.
